The Price of Attention
by Tastychainsaws
Summary: One lonely day, Tsumugi realize that she gets far less hugs than anyone else. She also notices she's mostly a waitress for her friends at times. So she makes a few remarks, and does a few things to get noticed. Things quickly get out hand.
1. Mugi's Masterful Plan

**THE PRICE OF ATTENTION CHAPTER 1- MUGI'S MASTERFUL PLAN**

Author notes/preamble- I decided that I wanted to write a fic where all the characters stay alive, with little to no conflict. Something that my 10 year old brother could read and quote in good company. I took some liberties with Mugi's personality, and she's a teensy bit OOC, but it's all for humor. And don't worry, it's nothing like Miyuki in my other story. Comparing Tsumugi in this story to Miyuki in that one would be like comparing sponges to nuclear weapons. They're both made of matter...and that's about it.

I believe when writing for a character who gets next to no inner dialogue, OOCness is impossible to avoid.

**TSUMUGI**

It happened _again_ today. Ricchan, Yui-chan, and Mio-chan all went out to the movies after school; Azusa was with her kouhai friends and didn't go. Where was I? Sitting alone, at home, bored, no one to play with. I say _again _because this happens on a regular basis, me being the odd one out. Is it because they think I'm boring or something? When I went to the arcade with Ricchan, it _looked _like she was having a good time.

Or maybe it's because I'm too much of a wallflower, just sitting in the background the whole time. I don't contribute to many conversations, compared to Yui-chan at least. Maybe that's my problem, I'm not making myself noticed enough. Then there's Ricchan and Mio-chan who are always hitting each other, well Ricchan hits and chokes _everyone_... except me. While I don't want to go around slapping my friends upside the head, maybe there's a lesson to be found in her behavior.

Whatever the case is, the end result is clear- I need to stand out more.

I came to school early today, ready to set an ambush for whoever showed up first. Perched like a hungry giraffe, I hid behind the couch with my hands shaped like claws, and my best scary face set and loaded. The trap was set, and I waited, listening for footsteps across the hardwood floor.

In hindsight, maybe showing up three hours before school was a bad idea. It wasn't even light out yet, and I was probably the only one there. Not knowing what else to do, I plugged in my headphones and just played my keyboard. Canon in B minor was I was in the mood for, something simple and time consuming. At least it wasn't Fur Elise, I wish bad things upon those who play that in the company of others. Nothing too bad though, maybe something like their favorite show being on an hour later than they had hoped. Something mildly disappointing.

The clock on the wall told me that my targets would be arriving soon, mwuahaha. I unplugged the keyboard and headphones, and crouched down back in my hiding spot. No sooner when I crouched down, I heard the door open.

"All I'm saying is that a manatee could easily beat a beluga whale in a fight." Ricchan said to presumably Mio. I could tell by her heavy sigh that followed.

"Manatees are herbivores, they have no natural weapons to fight a beluga whale with. Not to mention how they've almost gone extinct from getting chopped up by boats." Mio replied. It often amazed me to see the kind of arguments they came up with.

"_Boo!_" I jumped and cried out at them.

Ricchan and Mio-chan just walked past me. At least Mio had the courtesy to spare me a passing glance, "Oh, good morning Tsumugi."

Three hours of waiting for them to arrive and...and...I...It took every ounce of willpower not to scream vulgarities in anger. But I certainly screamed them in my head, _Oh kitty paws!_

Yui-chan and Azusa-chan were the next ones to arrive, they too were arguing about something. Yui looked rather passionate about it, "...The F Chord was made by terrorists to scare people away from playing guitar, it's true!"

"Yui-senpai, there are no guitar terrorists making up chords to frighten anyone." Azusa deapanned. In all honesty, I thought Yui was on to something with her ideas.

"Good morning Yui-chan." I said with a nod of my head.

"Good morning Mugi-chan." She said in return. Then I realized something, she was standing _right _in front of me. This was my chance to do something big, something to make them notice how cool I can be. I raised my hands and prepared my attack.

"Tickle Attack!" I shouted and proceeded to tickle away at Yui-chan's exposed sides. No reaction. At all. I felt the smile melt off my face.

"Ui and I used to have tickle fights all the time, I built up an immunity." Yui told me, then stepped past me to the table. Azusa gave me a sympathetic look and followed her. Once again, my mind resorted to vulgarities, _Turtle Flippers!_

"Is there any tea ready?" Ricchan asked me, looking a trifle bit impatient.

"Just a moment." I told her without thinking, and moved across the room to prepare it like I always did. Two pranks had failed already, today was not off to a great start. But now their tea was in front of me, giving me full access to do whatever my evil heart wanted. So Ricchan wasn't one to be startled, well let's see how she like poisoned tea! Of course I wouldn't actually poison her tea, that would be rude, but I could certainly alter it to my liking. That was it, _five _tea bags in at once, _four _lumps of sugar, _and _three spoons of honey. The adrenaline this concoction would cause certainly made up for my failure this morning.

"Here you are." I smiled and placed the cup in front of her, then moved on to giving everyone else their tea.

"Jeeze Mugi, did you put any tea with this sugar?" Ricchan said with a mildly disgruntled face. Still, she drank it all. My horribly evil plan was set in motion. I amazed myself at my own wickedness sometimes, and wondered what people would think if they knew what kind of things I schemed. _That Mugi-chan, she was always so nice. Who knew she would over sweeten tea! _Then I would laugh...

Yui gave Ricchan a strange look, "Are you okay there?"

The drummer's eyes had become just a little dilated, and her hands were shaking. She gave Yui-chan a wide grin and nodded while speaking really fast, "Of course I'm alright Yui-chan, I feel great actually. Hey! Why don't we practice right now!"

"Because class starts in 10 minutes." Mio told her.

"Screw that, let's play a power ballad _right now_!" Ritsu demanded. I made a mental note to monitor her sugar intake and never do this ever again... "Wow Yui-chan, that's a pretty cool guitar you have there, do you like to play it? I like to play your guitar!"

"Something's wrong with Ricchan." Yui whimpered, looking sort of frightened. All I could think was, _Oops._

"Mio-chan, you should grow your bangs out longer than the rest of your hair, then you could fight crime!" Ritsu continued, we all sat looking back and forth to one another; waiting for someone to step up and fix Ricchan. No one spoke though, and Ritsu just kept chattering about nothing, "If I could fight crime, then you could fight crime, then she could fight crime as well. We should buy a beaver to Ton-chan to play with! Read Falling Stars!"

We were saved by the bell. Class was starting, but I was worried how our drummer would behave on her extreme sugar high. Luckily, as soon as class started she was passed out asleep on her desk. I forgot that fatigue always followed haste, so I guess that was good thing.

I used this time in class to think of another way to get more noticed, that didn't involve breaking Ricchan again. That was a bad move on my part, I'll admit it. And they didn't even suspect that I had something to do with that either! I'm the one who brings all the tea and snacks, I think I deserve just a little bit more respect. But at soon as the tea stops flowing, I'm showered with complaints. Psh, they couldn't last one day without me.

That's it! I need to "disappear" for a little while so they'll appreciate me more when I come back! Once again I amaze myself at my own intelligence. But how to "disappear"? I know, I'll just call in sick and stay home for a few days just kind of hanging out, then they'll be all excited when I come back. However, at lunch an obstacle was presented.

"Okay everyone, tomorrow we're meeting at the junior high after school with our instruments." Mio instructed, apparently I had missed something.

"It's about time that we get to do a live show." Ritsu nodded.

"Should I polish Gitah for this?"

"Ummm..." I muttered under my breath, seriously, I must have missed something.

"Right! We forgot to tell you." Ritsu said, finally understanding my confusion, "There's some 'variety show' thing going on at my brother's school. He wanted us to play, so I gladly signed us up. I even remembered to fill out the form too!"

"You only put our names down, and drew stars around yours. I did everything else." Mio added. But why wasn't I told about this? I'm part of the band, right? Keyboard is a legitimate instrument as far as I know. Grr, _Puppy Kisses!_ Well, with this upcoming event it looks like I'll have to postpone my absence... Or _will _I?

**FAST FORWARD TWENTY HOURS**

The phone was in my hand, I was ready to make the call. Then I realized something, I need to _sound _sick or they won't believe me. However, I didn't know how to do that off the top of my head. I had already convinced my parents to let me take a few personal days, which was surprisingly easy to do, but now I just had to deal with this obstacle. Then I remembered something! There was that time that Ritsu called Mio a fat cow for not getting her a soda, then Mio kicked her right in the stomach. Ricchan couldn't talk right for a whole hour. I knew what must be done.

"Mother!" I called out as I stepped into the dining room. Daddy was well off to work by now, and mother was contently drinking tea while reading the newspaper.

"Yes, dear?" She answered without looking up.

I wasn't quite sure how to ask this, "Mother, I have an _odd _request."

That made her look up, "Don't worry Tsumugi, getting your cat spayed and neutered is a normal thing that all pets go through."

I just blinked, "What? No, that's not what I was asking."

Mother looked disappointed as she sighed, "Oh."

"I need your help with something for school." I told her, half telling the truth. Even if it was only the half truth, half lying to my dear mother made me feel all dirty inside.

"Sure, anything." She gladly answered.

"I need you to...hit me...right here." I explained while blushing uncontrollably and pointing at my belly button.

Mother cocked a pickled radish shaped eyebrow in confusion, "You want me to... hit you?" I nodded, "Tsumugi dear, you haven't been getting into the liquor cabinet again have you?"

I defensively waved my arms, "No, no, this is for school. You don't have to hit me hard, just enough to...make it hard to talk."

"Enough to knock the wind out of you?" She clarified.

"Yes, that! Please, pretty please, pretty please with kitty giggles on top?" I shamelessly pleaded. Mother didn't look exactly comfortable.

"If it's for school, but I'm not going to hurt you." Mother gave in.

I threw my arms around her in a tight hug, "Thank you mother! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"This isn't something my daughter should be thanking me for." She grunted and shrugged me off. With a heavy sigh, she spoke, "Tell me when."

"Right now." I bravely said, and put my arms at my sides.

"Okay, here goes nothing." With closed eyes, her unclenched fist slowly pushed into my stomach with no pressure behind it whatsoever. While that wouldn't have been enough to knock an empty glass over, it was surely enough to knock all the wind out of me. Maybe this was a sign that I needed to start hitting the gym more. At least to work on my abs, I could bench 75 kilos easily.

Clutching my stomach and staggering away, I looked back and smiled, "T-thank you..." I managed to exhale.

"Tsumugi..." Mother sighed, not looking too upset. I guess this was one of those times she thought I was too cute to be mad at. I could live with that. Now that awkward bundle of fun was over, it was time to move onto phase 2 of my plan. Still short of breath, I took my cellphone and dialed the most intelligent choice of persons to relay my "illness" to.

"Hello?" Ricchan answered her phone.

"Hi Ricchan." I managed to reply, talking after getting lightly tapped on the stomach was hard work. But at least my plan was working.

"Hey Mugi-chan, how's it going? You don't sound too good." She replied, falling for my genius plan.

"Yeah, can you tell Sawako-sensei I'll be out for a few days? I think I caught something." I asked her.

"Oh sure, man that sucks. We have that show later today." She sighed, "What did you catch?"

_Candy Sprinkles! _I didn't think about that, I had to make up an illness and fast. Without thinking I instantly replied with, "AID's I think, well I'll talk to you later."

"What-" Ricchan was saying as I hung up. I _think _AID's is the disease that gives you a sore throat. Now I had a whole day to kill until that show later on, the show that "Tsumugi" wouldn't be attending. She wouldn't be showing up there, but her twin sister they've never met would be. Until then I had to find something to do.

I considered replaying _Silent Hill: Shattered Memories_, but that game was..._strange_. At the end, it said that the "patient", or me in this case, was a lonely, bitter, sociopath who only thought of sex and death. I take mild offense to that, the only death I think about is the death of those weeds in my flower garden. Gosh darned weeds were always making me have to weed them. They make me so mad that I would will shamelessly scream bad words in my mind, _Cuddle Muffins_!

Gah, I needed to get my mind out of the gutter this morning. I decided that it would be wise to get the cosmetic aspects of my plan out of the way. Grabbing the black hair dye from that costume party a few month ago, I went into my 250 square foot bathroom and went to work dying my hair black as night. It took awhile to get all of it, but my mirror and I got through it in one piece. I showered, got all the black specks of my shoulder, and sent Ricchan a text message.

_Sorry about missing the show today, I found a way to make it up though!_

My new persona, the one that would take the place of Tea Giving Mugi-chan would be so unlikable that they would be showering the real me with hugs as soon as I returned. Overall, a flawless plan. But the more I think about it, I think it's kind of absurd how hard I have to work to just get hugs and attention. Still, just being myself certainly isn't working...unassisted at least.

But I still had a whole day to kill, and breakfast was a good way to start. My furry friend, my cat, Pickles the Cat was weaving in and out between my feet. I picked Pickles the Cat up and had to sternly tell him, "No, Mugi-chan gets breakfast first before Pickles the Cat gets his." My fluffy feline attempted to bite my eyebrows, as was his custom, so I put him down.

We dived into the kitchen, and I actually landed on my feet this time! What was I in the mood for?_Toast...WITH JAM_. Using my socks, I slid across the tile floor to the refrigerator and opened the door. My lips quivered and I nearly fainted from happiness, "Raspberry...jam..."

In a home like mine, even with all our accumulated wealth, raspberry jam was quite a luxury. I loved the stuff, I put it on my toast, I put it on my bread, and I occasionally put it on my skin and in my hair. My mother was fond of it also, as was Daddy. They were entitled to the jam as much as I was, but when Daddy's coworkers helped themselves to it...Well I guess I sort of have a "Mugi Moment". We're leaving it at that.

Bread in the toaster, jam ready, I braced in anticipation for the bread to pop back out. Wait! What was some toast without tea? Still using my socks, I gracefully slid across the tile floor and began to heat some water. WAIT AGAIN, I forgot that Pickles the Cat still needed food, and water. Since I didn't believe that water was a good way to start the day, I would put some tea in his water dish. The toaster popped and a glided over to it again, and slathered myself a gracious amount of jam. Then Tastychainsaws' accidentally spelled "amount" with two M's _again_.

As I went about my morning business, I sang a little song to brighten the mood, "_We're whalers on the moon, we carry a harpoon. But there are no whales so we tell tall tales and sing our whaling tune_."

The hot water was done, so I poured a little bit in to Pickles the Cat's bowl and placed in a tea bag. He looked up at me with unamused eyes, I knew he would come around though. To speed up the process I poured some dry food into his other bowl. But alas, he had slipped away somewhere. I couldn't let myself be distracted by things like that, so I went to go and eat my toast and tea.

_No..._

My knees buckled and I almost lost my balance. Some evil thief had stolen my toast in cold blood! I turned around to look for evidence, and saw Pickles the Cat walking off with a slice of toasted bread in his mouth. It couldn't be, there was no way I had raised a toast thief! Pickles the Cat was a nice kitty, he may have bitten me, Ricchan, Yui-chan, and just about everyone else multiple times... But he was still a nice kitty.

"No, that's people food!" I cried out and went to follow him. My socks betrayed me as a slipped on the tile floor and landed on my stomach.

"Is something wrong?" Mother called out from the other room.

"No!" I lied and crawled on my tummy after Pickles the Cat as he made his way to the stairs. No doubt going to hide it in his secret layer. _Oh Cuddly Pillows! _Someone had left the backdoor open, that's where he was going, not the stairs. "Don't take my breakfast outside, it will get dirty!"

The cat ignored my pleas and took another step towards the door. I needed a plan and fast, then it hit me. _Fight fire with fire! _"If you go out there with my breakfast, then you won't get breakfast of your own!"

That caught his attention, but he still took another step. To prove that I was being serious, I grabbed a handful of dry cat food out his bowl next to me. "Kitty don't you step out there, I'll eat your food and leave you hungry. I swear I will!"

Pickles the Cat ignored me and bounded off outside. To prove that Mugi don't take crap, I shoved all the food into my mouth and quickly went away at chewing it. Now I've made some pretty bad decisions in my life, but this very well may have been the worse. It's horrible dry taste sucked all the moisture out of my mouth and replaced with the smell of cat food. I was on my feet in an instant sliding across the floor to the kitchen sink. I turned it on and alternated between gulping down tap water and spitting out cat food. The good news was that I did this all without vomiting. Go me!

That horrible taste of cat food certainly destroyed the happiness that tea normally brought me. I, all of a sudden, felt like a bad cat owner for making Pickles the Cat have to eat this stuff. He would get wet food every night, but this just seemed criminal. Even thinking about the taste again was enough to make me gag. Well, it was time to put this all behind me and just make some more toast with jam. I opened the refrigerator again and looked around the for the raspberry jam. It wasn't there, it had seemed that the toast thief was also a jam thief as well. Could it be that Pickles the Cat's criminal activities went even deeper?

It wasn't like me to jump to conclusions like that, it was time for me to get to the bottom of this. I strode into the dining room to meet my mother. Much to my shock, there was a small plate with a slice of toasted bread with raspberry jam on it. How she had managed to make breakfast while I was still in the kitchen without me knowing was beyond me. Mother was a clever woman, not to be underestimated.

She looked up at me with a strange look on her face, "What happened to your hair?"

_Tickley Whiskers! _I had forgotten that she had not been informed about my new disguise. I had already lied to her once this morning, I wasn't about to do it again, "I dyed my hair so I can be in disguise when I play that show later today with all my friends."

"Any particular reason you need to be disguised?" She asked me.

Once again, no sense in lying, "I feel left out of the group and I want them to realize how important I am to them by me not being around. But I can't let them play the show without me so I disguised myself, and I'm going to act different so they don't know it's me."

"Are you having an identity crisis again?" Was her next question.

"No I'm not, this is just a plan to get more hugs and stuff." I replied with a shake of my head.

Mother just shrugged, "Alright, was their something you needed? You've been staring at my breakfast the whole time, did you want a bite?"

"Did you finish the last of the jam?" I asked her, trying to hold back the tears of jelly loss..

"Oh, yes I did." She replied, then saw the look on my face, "I'm sorry, I had thought that you had already eaten."

"Pickles the Cat stole my toast!" I sobbed. The events of this morning had proven too much and mounted into tears.

"Again I ask why you keep that little thing around." She sighed and put a hand on my shoulder, "How about I give you a thousand yen to run down the corner store and buy some more jam."

"Can I get the good kind?" I whimpered. Yes there _was _a good kind.

Mother smiled, "Yes you can get the good kind."

I squee'd and hugged her tight, she shrugged me off and placed a note in my hand. Without missing a beat, I thanked her and ran out the door to get to the store. Wait! I had a coupon for jam back at home. I quickly retrieved it from the respective drawer and marched off to the store. Sadly, my sundress lacked the finer luxuries of pockets, so I had to carry the money and coupon in my hands.

A little meow told me that my Maine Coon had been following me. I turned around and placed the coupon on the sidewalk so I could use that hand to pet Pickles the Cat. The traitorous fluffball just walked past me to get to the coupon. I gasped in horror, it was like my pet was out to get me now, "Pickles, don't eat the coupon!"

I desperately tried to wrestle the paper out of his tiny little mouth, but with a single tug he managed to run off with the other half of the coupon. Maybe mother was right, getting him "fixed" would certainly calm his behavior down just a little bit. I think any change would be an improvement at this point. Maybe I would look into it when I took him for his grooming today, because his Maine Coon fur was starting to get out of control. I had planned to put it off for awhile, but the lack of school for me today would give the opportunity.

My cat had run off to do more presumably adorable things, not that eating paper was adorable, and I was at the store. After buying jam many times, I knew exactly where to go to find it. Luckily this store was always well stocked in raspberry preservatives, which is better than jam in my opinion. Upon taking the preservatives off the shelf, I made my way to the counter where the cashier rang it up.

"That will be 1,044 yen, please." He told me in a monotone voice. Clearly this was one of those people who really hated their job, despite how easy it must have been. Wait! Mother only gave me a thousand yen to spend, I was 44 short. And Pickles the Cat had eaten my coupon. Today was not looking up at all.

Using my wits, and guile and firmly declared, "Lower!" Like Ricchan had taught me.

The cashier sighed, "Only the store owner's daughter can do that. You are clearly not her."

"Yes I am!" I said, "I am most definitely Kotobuki Tsumugi."

"No, Tsumugi has blonde hair." He said with his arms crossed, "I'm going to have to remove you from the store if you keep this act. Store policy and stuffs."

Sadly, he was right. Tsumugi did have blonde hair, and mine had been dyed jet black just this morning. Not wanting to make a scene a I grumbled some choice words under my breath and replaced the jam and grabbed a 2 liter bottle of coke instead. It wasn't something Mugi would drink, but I am not Mugi anymore, I am her twin sister from...wherever her twin sister had been the whole time. Details weren't important now.

Bottle paid for, I trudged out of the store and made my way home; taking sips of coke as I went. I wanted so much to resort to my normal cheerful demeanor today, but that was now impossible. Maybe things would get better, and a hug would certainly speed about that process. But then I realized something...No one ever hugs me; _ever_. Yui hugged Azusa every day, I saw Ritsu hug Mio occasionally. I remember asking Ritsu for hugs several times during our day out, and she just looked at me funny. Is it because I smell funny? A quick sniff of the underarms disproved that theory. Maybe my eyebrows were just a little too bushy? Whatever the reason, it hurt and it hurt bad.

But after meeting my "evil twin sister", I'm sure they were all love the normal me. I know I'm being selfish and I know that this is superficial. Those were small drawbacks for being closer to my friends.


	2. Mugi's Masterful Disguise

**THE PRICE OF ATTENTION CHAPTER 2- MUGI'S MASTERFUL DISGUISE**

Before we start, I wanna give a quick back story of Pickles the Cat. The Main Coon (arguably the most intelligent breed of housecat) known as "Pickles the Cat" appeared when Mugi found him alone at a gas station in Tokyo midway through my other story Long Way Home. Pickles the Cat made a name for himself after attacking Mugi and Ritsu, and summoning a horde of feral cats from a cornfield to aid him in killing Ritsu...which failed. Why Mugi still keeps him around is any ones guess.

**TSUMUGI, FOUR HOURS AFTER WHERE WE LEFT OFF...**

My trip to the kitty groomers for Pickles the Cat ended in horrible disaster, like everything else that day. Prior to today, I had a special membership with the grooming place since I took many a pet there over the years. However, today they ripped up my membership card in front of me.

_"Here, take your devil cat and go!" The groomer shouted and practically shoved my cat into my arms._

_ "Pickles the Cat isn't isn't a devil cat." I told her with eyes full of surprise. No one had called my pets "devil" anything before, it was surprising. Although the word "demon turtle" had come up in conversation before._

_ "Yes he is, while we were trimming him, he summoned like 20 cats out of nowhere. They were all around the windows and in the parking lot trying to get in!" She hysterically told me and proceeded to tear up my membership card._

_ Despite that, I could only smile and shrug like I always did, "Hehehe, yeah he does that sometimes."_

Fast forward a little bit, now I was walking towards the backstage of the auditorium of the junior high school we were playing at. A friendly lady gave me directions, so I was able to lug my keyboard there with little to no difficulty.

I confidently pushed the door open and waved my free arm at my lovable friends, "Hello everyone!"

Only Ricchan looked up, she poked Mio-chan's shoulder and pointed at me, "Who's this cracker?"

Right, right, right, I was in disguise now. I quickly spoke up, "Oh, uh, since O_nee-chan_ wasn't able to make it today. I came in her stead. I can play keyboard just as well."

"Who are you, and who is O_nee-chan_?" Ricchan asked me.

I was well able to keep up the bluff, "Oh, I meant Tsumugi. I'm her twin sister..Mugi...Tsu?"

"Oh, well nice to meet you Mugitsu. I'm Ritsu, and this is Mio, Yui, and Azusa." Ritsu introduced me to my friends.

"Yes, Onee-chan has told me all about you." I replied.

"You're Mugi-chan's twin sister?" Yui awed in wonder.

Azusa cocked an eyebrow, "Twin sister, don't you think we would have known if Tsumugi-senpai had a twin?"

_Sugar gnomes, _this woman is good. Luckily I had a good lie, "Oh, you've never met me because I live in uh...uhh..._Esss_..."

Before I could just make some place up, I heard another voice speak up. It was Sawa-chan, "Espoo, as in Espoo, Finland?"

_What's she doing here? _I thought, then replied as calmly as I could, "Yeah, there, that's where I've been the whole time!" I wasn't sure if they were buying it, because I was sweating and blushing uncontrollably. And when I got nervous, indigestion started to set in; making it hard to stand all of a sudden.

"I believe her, look at the eyebrows. They're just like Mugi-chan's!" Yui said and pointed straight at my eyebrows. _Squiggly Crayons, _I forgot to dye my eyebrows. But that somehow worked to my advantage. They didn't see anything wrong with me having black hair, and blonde eyebrows.

"So you're from Finland..." Sawako murmured while stroking her chin. I prayed she wouldn't interrogate me about my persona. She did, "Hey, play something Finnish for us on the keyboard, we have time!"

"I...uh...don't...even..." I stammered, but watched in horror as _they set up my keyboard for me_. Before I knew it, I was standing in front those shiny white and black keys without any idea of what to play. Improvising like I had been doing the whole time, I set my keyboard to the harpsichord setting and just quickly played a few different scales.

"Wow, is that _Bed of Razors _by Finnish metal band _Children of Bodom_?" Sawako excitedly asked.

I just blinked, "...Sure, if you want."

"Wow, Mugitsu, great to meet another fan!" She cheered and patted me on the shoulder. I just grinned and said nothing, "Oh man, you should totally get a _key-tah_, then just strut around stage like Janne did in that show I went to in Seoul like nine years ago. Copy him, every time Yui-chan tries to play something technical, just drown her out with the keyboard. They ruined a song that way!" I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

Next thing I knew they were bombarding me with questions!

"What's Finland like!" Yui asked me.

"Cold?" I shrugged.

"How long have you played the keyboard?" Mio asked me.

I raised my hands and made circle shapes in the air something, "This long?"

"What's your favorite brand of instrument?" Was Azusa's question.

_Why are you asking me this! _"The kind that makes instruments?" I meekly answered. Mugitsu had to be unlikable, and a smart-anteater comment like that would definitely annoy them.

Ricchan burst out laughing, "That was a good one, way to show Azu-nyan off for asking a dumb question like that."

"Yeah..." I muttered. I didn't wanna be Mugitsu anymore, Mugitsu was mean.

"Hey, that's not what she was trying to do. She's just nervous." Azusa retorted to her with her arms crossed. Then she looked at me, "You don't need to be nervous, we're really laid back. Too much for our own good."

_Dawww, she's so nice and cute! Shut up Mugi-mind-voice, Mugitsu is in charge now! _My reply came out shaky and disjointed, "Oh, no, I'm not nervous at all. Ricchan was right, it was a...uh...dumb question."

Azusa sighed and whispered to me, so no one else could hear, "Tsumugi-senpai, you're trying too hard."

_No! No! No! _How did she find out so quickly! I didn't think I was making it _that _obvious. Then again, this little kitty was a cut above her peers. Well as long as she kept my secret guarded, then I would allow this one person to know.

"Are you sure you know all of our songs, Mugitsu-san?" Mio asked me.

"Well, I _did _help write them." I accidentally replied. _No, no, no! Go back, let me redo that!_

"Hm?" The bassist hummed and raised an eyebrow.

"I mean, uh, my _sister _did help write them. She taught me everything, because she's so awesome. Yeah, you know how Mugi is, _awesome._" I quickly clarified.

"Oh, okay, well that's good." Mio nodded then walked off to go set something up. The next several minutes before we went on stage was filled with them asking me various questions about Finland, why they had never met me, and stuff about keyboards. I replied to each questions with a one word reply and a nervous shrug. But I couldn't help wonder why my "sister" never got this kind of attention. Nobody cared about where she came from. What she did, or her opinion on the A minor scale. Which happened to be her favorite, especially played in the bass clef. I bet they didn't know that either.

The lady running this whole show made it very clear that we only had enough time to do three songs. So Yui would have to stay quiet before, between songs, and after the songs so we would have enough time to finish. We all know what happens when a mic is placed in her calloused fingers.

Our performance was, well, average to be honest. Lot's of fun of course, but not any better than a good practice session. Three songs goes by fast, and we were quickly shoved off stage for the next act to perform. But judging by the crowd's reaction, we kept them entertained.

"Wow..." Mio muttered at me when we were packing our things up backstage, "You played _exactly _like your sister."

"Well, we are twins after all." I shrugged and tried to slowly slip away.

"I wish I had a twin..." Yui swooned.

"Ui may as well be." Mio reminded her.

"Oh yeah, forgot about her." The guitarist chuckled. I slipped away from them and walked right into Ritsu.

"There you are Mugitsu." She greeted me.

"I didn't go anywhere."

"Man, I can't get what your sister told me out of my head." She sighed and threw an arm around my shoulder. I could only wonder why Mugi didn't get this kind of attention once again. No arms were ever thrown around her. She never had the sweat of Ritsu's underarms dripping onto _her _shirt, just Mugitsu's. Then again, I was exactly excited to have Ritsu sweat on my shoulder. But at the same time I didn't hate it.

"What did I, er I mean..._she _say?" I asked, almost slipping once again.

"About...you know..." The drummer whispered.

"I don't know."

"Her...condition..." She said in an ever lower voice.

"Oh, no, the eyebrows aren't a condition. They're genetics." I told her, assuming that was what she meant.

"Eyebrows, what? No." Ricchan grumbled and shook her bangs, she sounded a little annoyed, "Okay, sorry if this sounds really blunt. But Mugi having AIDs, I just can't stop thinking about that. It doesn't seem like her."

Ohhh, right, that was the illness I told her that I had. I don't know why Ricchan would get worked up about a sore throat though. So I just went along, "Oh, don't worry about it. She'll be fine in a couple of days."

"I guess..." Ritsu shrugged, "...but I really can't figure out how someone like her could have gotten that."

Since I had gotten sore throats from family members, my reply seemed logical, "Oh I had a while back and she got it from me."

For some reason, Ricchan yelped and jumped a few feet away from me. Sounding hysteric, she asked, "What, did you both get a tattoo, or a bad blood transfusion?"

"Hm? Oh no, she just got it the normal way." I casually replied. Mio had been listening in on this whole conversation and looked like all the color had been drained from her. Ricchan was staring at me, mouth slightly agape, with her eye twitching. Azusa whispered something to Yui, who then jumped in surprise and stared at me like Ricchan was doing. "Did...did I say something funny?"

"No, no..." Ricchan muttered and slowly stepped away from me. She said that I hadn't said anything funny, but she was still inching away... Along with everyone else.

"Is something wrong, you're all leaving?" I asked as they all walked like crabs towards the door with their instruments.

"No...I just have to go...elsewhere." Mio muttered, the rest of them nodded in agreement and slipped away. Soon, I was the only one left there. Except for Sawako, who had been doing something else the whole time. What was she doing here in the first place again?

"Where'd everybody go?" She asked while looking around.

"I don't know, but Ricchan was supposed to be my ride." I sighed. That was something we had agreed upon before going on stage. I could have walked, but it would have been more fun to ride with my friends.

"Oh, you're staying with Tsumugi, right Mugitsu?" She asked me.

I nodded, "That's right."

"I know where you're staying then, let me give you a ride." Sawako offered me.

The opportunity to ride with Sawa-chan... The opportunity to be in her car, to smell the leather seats, to look at the cup holders. I could not pass this up, I _needed _this to make my day better. With stars in my eyes, I answered, "Yes, yes, take me with you!"

"Okay, uh, glad to see your enthusiasm. It reminds me of your sister." She replied, and pried my hands off her wrists. I hoped that she didn't notice how sweaty my palms got from excitement. Practically shaking from the excitement, I sat in her passengers seat and took in all it. That new car smell was still in the air, and the AC was a blessing on this hot day.

But for some reason, as we were going along, Sawa-chan would glance at me, then to all the little buttons between us. It was like she was expecting me to push them. But my seat was positioned comfortably, my window was just right, and the air was fine too. So I asked, "Is there something on my face?"

"Oh, no." She nearly jumped when she heard me talk. Something was up here, and it was my job to get to the bottom of it. Then it hit me, when _Mugi _played with those buttons, she had said something like, "I knew you'd do that". So it was up to me as Mugi's twin sister to reenact that scene. I randomly pushed a button like had before.

It didn't have the same effect as before, this time the seat shot forward and threw my face into the dashboard with 300 newtons of force. I felt like I was seeing stars, as I tried to find the button that would free me from this full leather interior death trap. My fingers mashed any button they could, which had me sliding backwards, and blowing air in my face. All I could do was squeal, "Help me!"

Sawako slammed on the breaks when she found a suitable parking spot. The sudden stop sent me flying forward, but the seat belt prevented me from becoming The Spectacular Flying Mugi. I heard her gasp and start hitting buttons to try and save me, "Don't worry Mugistu, I'll get you out of this!"

It didn't seem like she possessed anymore knowledge about this than I did. Because the seat kept slamming me into the car door and playing polka music. All I could do was continue to squeal, "Why do cars even need to do things like this!"

"I don't know, but wait, let me get my pocket knife. I'll cut you out of this!" She cried. I cringed in horror as I heard the faint sound of a pocket knife being undone.

"No, no, get me out the normal way!" I screamed, and would have flailed my arms if they weren't pinned to my sides.

"Don't worry, this is perfectly safe. I've only been to the hospital for two knife related injuries!" She tried to calm me, but that just made me panic more. Here I was, trapped in a this luxury vehicle, doomed to die without ever having tasted blood sausage made from human blood. Alas thy cruel fate! No, I wasn't going down without a fight. I began my squealing and squirming, and somehow managed to hit the "reset" button by accident. Everything when back to the way it had been. The only signs that the event ever happened would be the red mark on my forehead, and the red line above my belly button from being compacted like that.

Sawako was practically hovering over me. In her hands was not a tiny pocket knife, but an _illegal _butterfly knife. Since my house was only a few blocks away, I pried the door open and jumped onto the pavement. While I was starting to run, she cried at me, "Oh don't run away, why do high school girls always run away as soon as they see a knife!"

"Keep that knife and demon car away from me!" I screamed and ran all the way home. I wanted to just flop on my bed and sleep the rest of the day away. Tomorrow I would join the living as Tsumugi again, being Mugitsu was no fun. When I returned home, the first thing I did was pick up Pickles the Cat and rubbed his meowing body against my face for several minutes. That always cheered me up. Afterwords I had to wipe the furry white mustache he had left me with. Occasionally I would keep the mustache for a little while, but mustaches were against the schools dress code. Sometimes this all girl's school felt like it was run by Nazis.

Well, the next day my opinion of it went from the extreme right the extreme left of the political spectrum. Last night I had washed the dye out early, because I wanted to be Tsumugi again, so it would be like nothing had ever happened. But no, apparently I had said something I hadn't meant to say. Like I said, _extreme left_.

When I passed the bulletin board, I saw Yui-chan stapling something up there. Was it a flier for our club? No it was a flier for the newly established _Kotobuki Sisters AIDs Relief Foundation_, because apparently me and my fictional sister needed relief...

"Good morning Mugi-chan!" Yui cheerfully greeted me, then pointed at the flier, "We started this just twenty minutes ago already have several thousand yen!"

I was too shocked and embarrassed to speak. _Time to go dye my hair red and live the rest of my life as Tsumugi's OTHER twin sister, Gimutsu. That or move to Finland, which seems more realistic, I have relatives there._

Then it was decided, I would escape to Finland.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

Fun fact about this chapter. Although short, it was written in different cities in four different states of the United States. Franklin, North Carolina; Atlanta (worse airport EVER), Georgia; Chicago, Illinois, and Tacoma, Washington.

Anyways, next chatper- Mugi attempts to move to Finland, another casual lie gets out of hand, Mugi-vision raises some problems, and she has to find a way to fix everything.


	3. Mugi's Masterful Escape

**THE PRICE OF ATTENTION CHAPTER 3- MUGI'S MASTERFUL ESCAPE**

The rest of the day was like spending a day in...a store that's sold out of all the good stuff. Ha! Expected me to say something bad, didn't you? 4th wall shattering aside, I had to spend the whole day with people telling me how brave I was, and how much they admired me. Now, I like being admired and showered with praises, but only for things that I really did. Not just stuff I made up on accident.

"So, can we hang out with Mugitsu after school today?" Ricchan asked me. Yui-chan was right behind her, eagerly awaiting an answer.

"I...I don't know, why?" I meekly answered

"Because Mugitsu was awesome, she was like you, but with more of a _I don't take crap_ attitude. Maybe you should learn something about that from her." She actually said to me. They liked my fictional twin sister more than they like me. _Honey Rain! _Yep, that was it, time to move to Finland. But first I needed to tie up a loose end with a certain sister.

"Oh no, she died." I shrugged.

Ritsu just blinked, "Lolwut?"

"Yeah she was attacked by a polar bear and eaten last night when she got back to Finland." I lied. As far as lies went, this one was by far the craziest, no way they would believe.

"Darn it, the government of Finland needs to keep their bears under control!" Ritsu shouted and threw her hands on the desk in front of me. Tears were leaking out of her eyes, once again- _Oops_. Now I had gone and made my friend cry; was there no end to my treachery, "She's d-dead? That's...I don't even know how to react. I only knew her for maybe an hour...but...wow, man..."

"Yeah, it can't be helped." I said in faux sadness.

Out of nowhere, Ricchan took my hands and held them uncomfortably tight, "And here you are, coming to school when you had a family member die just mere hours ago no doubt."

"Well you know me, it takes more than death to keep me from coming to school to see my friends." I uncomfortably replied, and tried to slip away. She just held me tighter, then stood up with both of us. Yui and Mio looked up in curiosity at us, as did some other classmates.

"Every one, listen up for a moment!" Ricchan called out, then wiped away some of her tears, "Our beloved friend Mugi came here today even though her sister died last night. This brave soul came here to school in the face of death. _I demand a round of applause!_"

The applause was given by everyone but Yui and Mio; who were too stunned to speak. Tears were welling up in Yui's eyes, and Mio was dead pale (pun intended). Murmurs rang throughout the class at this news, people were whispering and commending my bravery. I didn't feel brave or noble, I felt like a liar; and getting praised for things that I didn't deserve made me feel bad. I didn't want this attention, I just wanted things to be back the way they were. Every time I lied, things just got worse.

Like I just said earlier, today was awful. People were praising me the whole time about bravery and stuff. After school I stepped into the music room to find Yui learning to play the song _Fade to Black _as some kind of creepy testimony to my fictional sister. It also didn't help that there were over a dozen cards in there that people had left. The cards were grief cards, many of which had pictures of cats on them. Yui saw me and gave me a comforting smile, "Good news, the _Kotobuki AIDS Relief Fund _has gotten over 80,000 yen! But we're planning on using that money to fund the funeral if your family can't-"

I shut the door and ran away. This was getting out of hand, and my only way out seemed to be to escape to glorious Finland. I could go there, live an in igloo, and ride reindeer into town every three weeks to stock up on walrus blubber and black tea. As I was running down the hallways to get home and pack up, a certain twin-tailed guitarist stopped me.

"Mugi-senpai, just what are you doing."

"Going to go buy walrus blubber." I lied and tried to get past her. She put a hand on my shoulder to stop me.

"Mugi-senpai what's going on? You've been lying nonstop for the last couple days, and now people think your some kind of brave hero and are giving you money!" Azusa knew exactly what was going on. This was bad, this was very _very _bad. I believed that my only real option would be to "get rid of her", as my father would have put it. He would hire people "to get rid of" of other people in rival businesses. I just assumed that meant tell them to go somewhere else so they would stop interfering with his own profits.

"N-nothings going on, I just...uh...said some things that I didn't mean to say." I stuttered and tried to get past her, "I, uh...uh, I'll be in Finland!"

"Wait, don't run away. I know how to fix all of this without you getting in trouble. Stop running, good people don't run!" Azusa cried from behind me as I ran out the door, like a boss. That could have gone better, but I didn't need that little kitty making things worse. Mugi had a hold of everything, and Mugi didn't need no help from no one.

Saying goodbye was always hard for me, so I just left a note on my refrigerator that I had left to stay with our cousins in Finland for a week...or two...or 54. The details weren't important, I just needed time to let this all blow over. Most importantly, I needed to stop impulsively lying to avoid getting in trouble, or to cover up a previous lie. I noticed that every lie I told seemed to make things worse and worse, so it was time to stop lying altogether. Anyway, I left my note, packed up my essentials, got my carry on bag already, then hailed a cab to the airport.

Now let me begin by saying that if you've ever been through a Japanese airport, it's actually rather stress free. Finnish airports aren't bad either, nor Korean ones, or even ones in Denmark. I've flown to a lot of places throughout my short life, but the airport in New York City, America, was probably the most brutal. Having any melanin in your skin instantly makes you a potential terrorist, and I missed my flight there because they detained me for questioning...when I was 11 years old. I was too young to remember it clearly, but I think they thought that I flew a plane into the World Trade Center. America doesn't make sense to me...

My little story aside, I took one last look at my town and went to catch a flight that I had booked online. I was sure gonna miss all my friends, but nothing said I couldn't come back and visit every (other?) weekend to play keyboard and drink tea. In fact, I would do that. I could bare a few 22 or so hour flights, and maybe even travel the world going on adventures too. I heard New Zealand/Middle Earth was nice this time of year. The world was my playground, and internet schooling made traditional schools outdated, it was time for me to move on with my life. If lying, telling everyone that I had AIDS, and that my sister died was the catalyst; than so be it.

I was munching on a sandwich that I purchased as I walked towards the security outpost thingy. I already checked in my bag, so this was the last real leg of my journey. My carry-on bag had my laptop, Ipud, (**A/N- I had to put the "U" instead of "O" there or Steve Jobs will come to my house and break my fingers. True story.**) some reading material, snacks, and basic grooming supplies. I placed them all on the funny little tray and contently continued to munch away my sandwich.

"Umm, you can't bring that on flight without proper restraint." A man in a funny uniform with an oversized badge that read "Airport Security" over it told me.

Memories of being detained in America flashed in my mind, leaving me a little shocked and confused. But what could he mean! "My sandwich needs restraint?" That was when my eyes met those of a certain mischievous cat, "Pickles the Cat, what are you doing here?"

"Meow."

"No, you can't come with me, I'm restarting my life. You need to go home." I firmly told him, trying to hold back tears.

"Meow."

"No Pickles the cat, that's not my home any longer." Tears were starting to flow now, I didn't know he felt so strongly.

"Meow."

"No...I'm bad at goodbyes." I sniffled.

"Umm..." A certain ignored and irritated Airport Security agent made himself known again. "As I said you can't bring that... thing with you, and you can't leave it here, or it will be put down."

_Muffin Rainbows! My flight leaves in 20 minutes and it takes an hour to get Pickles the Cat home. _My choice was made for me, the some 30,000 yen was wasted and no one was there to claim by bags; but it was either that or the life of a friend. Mugi don't leave no one behind. Still it kind of disgruntled me, "Biscuit eating Bulldog! You made me miss my flight and my new life!"

"Meow."

Our conversation was taking place as we passed the baggage carousal. I heard a voice from just beyond a group of people, it sounded familiar, "Onee-chan, what are you doing?"

"I thought I heard a cat." Yui told her sister, _Gah, what are they doing here! They can't know I'm here, there's no way I can tell them that I was trying to escape to Finland. They'll hate me forever._

I jumped behind a chair and scolded my pet, "Pickles the Cat, you almost blew our cover...Okay, two bogeys, three clicks away. Wait, what exactly _is _a bogey, and how far is a click for that matter?"

"Mugi-chan!" Yui waved at me, I gracefully shoved Pickles the Cat into my shirt, wincing as he clawed at my chest. She ran over to me smiling widely, "What are you doing here at the baggage claim for inbound flights from Finland?"

"I'm uh..uh...waiting for my aunt and uncle!" I quickly lied, and looked for an exit, "Uhh...uh, what are you doing here?"

"Ui-chan and I are waiting for our mommy and daddy to get back from their vacation in Finland. What coincidence that we'd find you here!" She replied, looking just a little too happy, "Hey, why are you blushing Mugi-chan? And why do you look so sweaty? And why do is there a giant cat shaped bulge in your shirt, did you get a new bra?"

"I...uh...uh...Hey look, there's my aunt and uncle!" I shouted and pointed to a random couple in a crowd of people. I randomly pointed at a guy with glasses and his beautiful spouse with really long brown hair like Sawako's.

"Who?" Yui asked, but I was already sprinting like there was a half-off sale in the other direction. However, this direction did not lead to the way out like I wanted it to. My only option would be to sneak out past them. Luckily, airports are like mazes, with all these crazy tunnels and hallways just waiting to be explored. So I used my intuition and chose a random door and passed through it, because I knew it would be a short cut past them.

However, the door we passed said "Security Only. No Admittance". Which meant we had to be extra sneaky here.

"Meow."

"No, we must be quiet." I told him as we passed a door into a room full of computer monitors. The room was awfully dark and rather quiet, "Hm, it's really quiet in here. Perhaps too quiet."

An alarm went off.

"Now it's too loud, let's go back to being quiet." I suggested.

"Hey young lady, what are you doing the airport security room!" Another man in a funny uniform yelled at me. I started to cry because he was aiming a loaded M4A1 carbine with a mounted 3GL grenade launcher at me, or it was his sandwich. Either way, it was still really threatening.

"We were trying to sneak out so our friends didn't see us!" I sobbed.

"I see, well, wait here while we figure out what to do with you." He ordered, leaving me detained at an airport for the second time in my life. He eventually returned and heaved a heavy sigh, "Well Miss Kotobuki... Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in?"

"I didn't do 9/11 I swear!" I screamed, he flinched back at the volume in my voice.

He sighed again, "...We have already called your parents to come get you, you're lucky they invest a lot into your security or you would have ended up in jail."

I gulped, at least I wasn't getting called a terrorist though. My parents had to come and pick me up and drive me home. I sat in the back of the car with my cat on my lap as they drove silently. The tension was so thick in the air that you could cut it up and spread it on toast.

Eventually my mother sighed, "Tsumugi...I have a lot of questions about this. But my biggest one is this- Why did you bring your cat with you?"

"I didn't bring him, he followed me 50 kilometers on foot here!" I tried to tell her. Mother just sighed and shook her head.

"Your father and I talked about it. We decided that..." She paused a moment for dramatic effect, "You're..._grounded_."

"_NEEEEEYYYYYYYOOOOOO!_" I shrieked in English, I had never been grounded before, and wasn't even completely familiar with the word. I assumed that it meant that they would break my keyboard and make me eat cat food. Dozens of horrible imagines flooded into my mind as I imagined the grisly possibilities of what they would. In a meek voice I asked, "What are you going to do with me?"

"No more Keinbu for a whole week." They said in unison. Me and Pickles the Cat gasped in obscene horror, this was... mildly convenient actually. This would give me the time I needed to formulate a plan to get out of this. Escaping to Finland proved futile, and I was now barred from the Light Music Club.

I sighed, "I understand, I will come up after school every day without hesitation."

"We're glad you're taking this well." They told me. At least nothing was going wrong there. Until mother spoke up again, "Umm, Tsumugi, we've been getting flowers and cards in the mail all day about someone named _Mugitsu_. Apparently she was...eaten by a polar bear... would you know anything about this? It's just a bit odd that this person's name is an anagram of your own."

"Must be a mistake." I shrugged.

"Well they also sent us nearly a hundred thousand yen for some "aid relief fund". We don't need either aid or relief." She continued. I felt myself melting into my seat, "What's strange about that is how they used our surname, so I'm not sure that one was a mistake. They must have gotten the surname wrong. It was from your school, you should try to figure out who it was really for."

"R-right." I stuttered, and tried to melt more into my seat. The next few days of school were not going to go my way. It didn't help that it was already past my bedtime and I hadn't even done my homework yet. In my lap, Pickles contently purred.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

Some thanks are in order. First off, thanks to _Sister Blood _for providing dialogue for what have been an otherwise very flat chapter. Second, thanks to _Blueteamftw _for beta-reading. And thanks to all readers for putting up with my remarkably slow progress of this story.


	4. Mugi's Masterful Leadership

**THE PRICE OF ATTENTION CHAPTER 4- MUGI'S MASTERFUL LEADERSHIP**

**Polar bears do not live in Finland. That was the joke.**

I was shaking beyond all control as I sat in the clubroom alone awaiting the day to start. Azusa would be there to tell everyone how much of an evil person I really was. Needless to say, I was terrified.

"Oh man, Mugi-chan, I got something to cheer you up!" Ricchan shouted as she burst through the door. I looked up and gave a shaky smile. She ran over threw down a little blue electronic box on the table.

"What's that?" I asked.

"A talk-box effect pedal, this thing is amazing!" Ritsu excitedly told me, "Yui's guitar is here, so let's plug it in so you can hear it."

After knowing the guitarist for about 2 and a half years, I had picked up a few things about instrument. So we got the pedal set up and I played a few notes...then began laughing hysterically at the sound it made, it was like guitar was talking. Ricchan was laughing too, "Let's write a song with this after school."

My smile melted off my face, "I can't..." I whimpered.

"Sure you can!"

"No, I mean... I have to go home right after school."

"Why?"

"I'm grounded." I whispered.

"That good, that means you won't get shocked if you touch the metal part of a plug." Ritsu nodded.

"No, no, no. I mean I can't play with my friends." I whispered even quieter, "I got in trouble."

"Mugi...got in trouble." Ricchan said slowly, she just stared at me then. I waved my hands in front her face, no reply... _Oh no! I broke her, I can't afford Ricchan parts, they're expensive!_

It was then that Yui practically kicked in the door while dragging in Azusa by the wrist. She looked at me and waved, "Mugi-neesan!"

That was not a greeting I was familiar with, but this was no time for her shenanigans, "Help, I broke Ricchan!"

"Did you give her AIDs?" Yui asked, apparently just as unfamiliar with the word I used to be. Azusa grimaced at that, being fully aware of everything with her crafty little eyes. I needed to watch my back around her, lest I wanted everyone to know how much of an evil lying liar I was. There was a way to fix this, I just needed to find it.

"No, no I didn't. I told her I was grounded." I replied, hoping I didn't sound too irate.

"Good, that way you won't get shocked when you touch the metal part of a plug. I did that once when I was unplugging my amp and it made me pass out and pee my pants." Yui openly informed me.

Now it was Mio's turn to show up, she walked in, staring at her feet. Azusa quickly saw this and asked if anything was wrong. Mio looked up, and looked absolutely terrified, "Guys, I'm scared. I never properly thanked Mugistu for playing with us. And the whole time I was thinking how utterly disgusting her eyebrows looked..." _Hey! _"...and now I'm afraid her ghost is haunting me. When I brushing my hair this morning, everything fell off the shelf on top of me!"

Yui shuttered in fear, "Did her ghost do it?"

"N-no, it was the cat. But I think her ghost possessed the cat!" Mio squealed.

"Oh no!" Yui gasped in horror, "We need to take Mugi-neesan to occult club to exorcise her!"

"Neesan?" Azusa cocked in eyebrow.

"Oh, I forgot tell everyone about that!" Yui excitedly replied, "I was at the airport yesterday, and I saw Mugi-chan!" _Oh no... _"She said she was waiting for her aunt and uncle, then she pointed at my mommy and daddy and said it was them. Then there was something about a cat and she ran away, brain not remember details very good after last time got shocked by gitah amp..."

"Wait you two are cousins, and what's wrong with Ritsu?" Mio asked.

"She broke." I told her.

"Again?" Mio sighed.

"Enough chit-chat, we need to exorcise Mugi-neesan!" Yui interrupted.

"Right." Mio nodded, surprisingly following Yui's lead. They grabbed me by the arms and started dragging me.

"No, why are you exorcising me if Mio-chan's the one possessed!" I screamed as they dragged me across the floor. They simultaneously dropped me then looked at each other.

"Hm, she has a point." Mio replied, then stroked her chin.

"Yes, she does." Yui agreed, "You don't want to get exorcised, do you Mio-chan?"

"No Yui, I do not." Mio told her.

"Perhaps if we exorcise Mugi-neesan, then the soul bond between sisters will be shattered and Mugitsu's spirit will go to Valhalla where it belongs." Yui suggested, "That is where Finnish people go when they die right, Valhalla?"

"I think so." Mio shrugged, then they lunged at me.

"No, no, no!" I shouted as they went to grab at me. I desperately tried to crawl away, but they were fast and grabbed my legs and began dragging me across the room on my tummy. I looked up and shrieked, "Azusa-chan, they're taking me away!"

"Come on, let her go." Azusa tried to say.

"No, she's evil!" Yui replied.

"She's leaving scratches in the hardwood floor with her fingernails, their going to make us buff that out." The twin-tailed guitarist groaned, she didn't look to happy.

Yui looked down and looked at the eight lines I had left in the floor with my nails when I was trying to claw away, "That's not good, is it?"

"No, Yui, it is not." Mio agreed. They both dropped me, rather painfully, onto the ground. I landed with an _Oomph_, then stood up and brushed dust of my skirt. The bell rang, signaling class was about to begin. Yui helped me haul Ricchan back to class, because she was still broken.

"So what kind of cousin things do you want to do after school?" Yui asked just before we were entering class.

"Cousin...things?" I asked, not sure what that could mean.

"Yeah, like go to an amusement park, eat a big tasty dinner, or go to an arcade or something!" Yui excitedly told me. While I was making things worse in the long run for me, all those things sound _amazing_.

"Cousin!" I cheered and threw an arm around her, and dropped Ritsu on accident. The landed with rather loud thump, which probably broke her even more. That didn't matter though, "So when can we start doing cousin things?"

"We can start tonight!" Yui happily replied.

"Let's go the amusement park, I can use all that money that people gave me. That sounds like AIDs relief to me."

"Do you think we can spend 120,000 yen in one night?" Yui asked.

"Let's find out!" I cheered.

"Let's buy fast passes for every single line!" She suggested.

"Then we can buy ice cream at every vendor we see!" I added.

"Let's eat a fancy imported lobster dinner too!"

"Make that two!"

"Then we can buy Segways to ride home!"

"Can I get a pink one?"

"Only if I get the blue one!"

"Let's buy stuffed animals too!"

"Really big ones with cute faces!"

"We can make a stuffed animal circus!"

It was Sawako who ruined our fun, "_Take your seats already! _You've been standing there babbling for like five minutes. And put Tainaka-san in hers since she seems unable to stand up right now."

"Okay..." We muttered and followed her fascist commands. At least after all these crazy things that were happening, I had something to look forward to. However, during lunch Azusa showed up to rain on my parade.

"...then we're going to buy a cow and keep it in the clubroom. It will be the Light Music Cow." Yui was enthusiastically telling everyone about what we would do that night all that money.

"Isn't it wrong to be using that money for your own personal leisure?" Azusa asked Yui, "So far it sounds like you're just using Tsumugi-senpai's disease as an excuse to have fun."

"Don't talk about my cousin like that, she just wants what's best for us." I scolded her.

"What!" Azusa blurted out, "Now you're going around telling people you two are related?"

_Slippery Salmon! How did I let that get out so easily, I can't be this easy to figure out! _"It's not like that." I quickly replied. However, Yui threw an arm around me and made things worse.

"Since Mugitsu is gone, I'm going to take over the sister role in Mugi-neesan's life. I wonder why our parents never see each other though, _they are _brothers and sisters after all."

"Fine, fine, do whatever." Azusa deadpanned, "I'll be here when you need me to fix the plethora of problems you have cause, and will certainly continue to cause. Because I know a way to correct everything."

Yui and I laughed in haughty unison, "Ha, Ha, Ha, problem?" That was accompanied with I like to call my "best troll face".

"Okay, laugh at me, that's cool. I'm going to go eat somewhere else now." Azusa scoffed and marched off.

I looked at my cousin, "Do you think we were too mean to her?"

"Nah, she just cranky because it's her you-know-what." Yui replied.

"I don't know what."

"Neither do I."

Today proved to be an extra special day, that was the day that we had dodge ball inside the gym. We never go to play that game, so I was excited. It was a good thing that head shots didn't count, because people liked to aim for my eyebrows for whatever reason. We were changed into our gym clothes, and students were placing the balls at the middle line.

"Kotobuki-san." One of my classmates greeted me, at least a dozen others were behind her.

"Yes?"

"Well...We all admire your bravery. You struggle daily with death and disease, yet you continue to fight on here." She bowed.

"You know me." I blushed, _I thought we were over this._

"We do, and we want you to give us some encouraging words for the up coming battle." With that, all 24 members of my team were eagerly awaiting me to give some sort of speech.

"Uhh...uhh...uhh..." With each "uhh" the eagerness in their faces grew tenfold, and the game was about to start in just seconds, "_Raise your swords up high! See the black birds cry! Let them hear your rage! Show no fear! __**ATTACK!**_"

The chorus of screams my team emitted drowned out any potential sound that existed in the room. With inspired fury, they charged at the enemy team, which all my friends were on, with malice in their eyes.

"No! You can't go past the line!" The gym teacher shouted as everyone but me ran over the line with dodge balls in hand. I had somehow managed to invoke violence on a grand scale. My teammates beat the other team down with dodge balls as they screamed and tried to flee, with little success. I gasped in horror as I saw Ricchan and Mio get completely brutalized with dodge balls. Yui was still in it, ducking and weaving throughout the carnage.

"Yui-chan!" I screamed, and ran into save her.

"Our queen demands her head!" Someone shouted and pointed at Yui, _That's not what I meant! Tea clouds are certainly hovering over me right now. _"The enemies are in disarray, ride them down as they run! Send them all to a violent grave, don't spare anyone!"

"No, spare everyone!" I tried to tell them, but when six out of the eight dodge balls hit Yui, I knew it was too late. Things, however, only got worse. The gym teacher was no longer in control, and my zealots were taking this even further.

"Let's loot everything and take slaves!" There was a room wide H_oorah! _Then before I knew it, people were running into the locker room to steal whatever wasn't locked up.

"What just happened?" Mio asked me as the rest of them ran out.

"I...don't know." I blinked in amazement.

Yui was next to me, trying to fix her messed up hair, "They tried to pull my head off for some reason, can you believe that Mugi-neesan?"

"No." I squeaked, feeling very small all of a sudden.

"Schools almost out, should I meet at your house, or should you come to mine?" Yui asked, then finally fixed her hair.

"Yours!" I quickly shouted.

"What's going on after school?" Mio asked us. Ritsu was next to her, but still lacked the ability to speak.

"Mugi-neesan and I are going on a date!" Yui told her. _No, no, no don't call it that!_

"A date?" Mio just stared.

"Yeah, we're going to the amusement park to have fun. Maybe even ride the tunnel of love!" Yui happily went on. _Great, now everyone thinks I have AIDs, am gay for my fictional twin sister, am gay for my cousin, and that I'm somehow the Goddess of War too. I miss the days when I was just Tsumugi, the tea lady._

"Aww, I wanna go..." Mio huffed.

"Can we bring her Mugi-neesan?" Yui turned and asked me.

"Sure!" I smiled.

**SEVEN HOURS LATER...**

I could say without a doubt that this night had been the greatest in my life. Ricchan had come along too, but she didn't say anything 'cuz she was still broke. There was a big smile on my face as I walked up my driveway, there was face paint too, I looked like Shagrath from _Dimmu Borgir. _In my arms was Dozo, my new giant teddy bear, and in my tummy was a full course dinner from this lobster place. So it was a fun night out with friends; we tried to invite Azusa-chan but she said she didn't want us to use "blood money" to have a good time.

My ascent into my home was stop when I saw Mother and Daddy standing at the doorway looking rather upset. I gave them a smile, "Is something wrong?"

"You're concept of the word _grounded _is wrong." Mother scolded.

_Moogle Pom-Poms! I forgot about that_, "Oh...yeah... about that..." I tried to hide in my turtle shell, but I didn't have one, so that didn't work.

"Kotobuki Tsumugi, your behavior lately has been completely unacceptable. You are to go to your room and stay there every day after school without doing anything. Furthermore, we hid your laptop, iPud, and-"

"Mom I completely understand you, and I'mma let you finish, but that sounds like the most unfair punishment in the world. In the world!" I interrupted.

"Tsumugi, in your room. Now!" She ordered.

"Fine..." I sighed, then shuffled my way through the door.

"But wash that garbage off your face, this is why we don't want you mingling with the lesser born." She continued to scold.

"Yes mother." I sighed, then went to the washroom to bathe and get all sparkly clean. I put all my new things in my room, then dressed down to a comfortable state of nudity. A hot bath did wonders for my tormented mind, because I still needed to find a way to fix everything with the lies I caused. There was always the option of just not fixing anything, and enjoying the fame. I already had a group of warrior zealots ready to kill at my command, and was getting free money. All of a sudden, this didn't sound all that bad. The only loose end was Azusa-chan, and she would eventually come around.

"What do you think I should do Pickles the Cat?" I asked my cat, who was sitting at the side of the bathtub waiting to lick any water off of me if any part of my body came too close to him.

"Meow."

"Possibly, but do you really think it would go that way?"

"Meow."

He brought up a good point, "You're right, she has been saying that she knows how to fix this."

"Meow."

"Hmm, and you think I'll get lime disease if you do that?" I hadn't even thought about that.

"Meow."

"Alright Pickles the Cat, you can lick my feeties then." With that, I lifted my foot out of the water so he could lick the water off my toes. It tickled, so I had to stifle bouts of maniacal laughter. We got out and dried ourselves off before I had to return to my room for my punishment. I turned on the light and found an interesting sight...

"What are you doing in my room!" I shrieked as I saw that girl, the one who had lead my zealots into battle, sitting on my bed. It didn't help that my room was on the second floor.

"Tsumugi-sama, we are lost without your leadership. Your words of courage, the way you lead us to victory inspired us." She told me.

"W-we?" I squeaked.

"Yes, I brought all your followers...because we all got suspended from school for that game of dodge ball, and we're bored. We long for combat, direct us o' Mistress of Pain." She replied, then lead me to my window, where there was a rope leading down. In my side yard were 15 girls waving at me.

"Go home, all of you!" I yelled out my window. Big mistake.

Mother called up from downstairs, "Tsumugi, who are you talking too?"

"Pickles the Cat!" I called back.

"He's on my lap." Right, the kitty hadn't followed me in there.

"Uhh, sorry, I was just being bored!" There was no reply, assuming she had bought that story. I lowered my voice to a whisper, "You can't be here, I'm grounded."

"That wench is keeping you prisoner!" She who was still unnamed gasped in shock, "Shall we slay her and set you free my lady?"

"What's wrong with you people!" I hissed in a low voice.

"We've been drinking coffee and listening to _Amon Amarth _for hours now, it's taking a toll." She smiled.

"That doesn't matter, just get out of my house!" I ordered, and pointed at the window.

"But malady, are we not the faithful servants you so wish?" She looked hurt.

"I don't want servants, I'm not a warlord either. I'm Tsumugi...I'm...Tsumugi." I told her, then stopped for a moment, "That's right..._I'm Tsumugi_. I'm not Yui-chan's cousin, I don't have any diseases, and I'm an only child...and I need to make a phone call to a certain twin-tailed guitarist..."

**TO BE CONTINUED. ONE CHAPTER LEFT.**

I take no credit for the _Amon Amarth _lyrics Tsumugi quotes at one point.


	5. Mugi's Masterful Friend

**With more musical, political, internet and history allusions than you could shake a drumstick at-**

**THE PRICE OF ATTENTION CHAPTER 5- MUGI'S MASTERFUL FRIEND**

**Suspension of disbelief required.**

Everything was mildly under control, or was it, or it was at a state where I could make the best of it; one of the three. However, having an army of warrior zealots who followed my lead due to sheer boredom was too much. So I sighed and poured another cup of tea for the line that had formed, "You really don't have anything better to do, do you?"

"Nope." Satsuki, the general of the warrior zealots smiled. At least she died in _The Dead Music Club_, so that was cool.

"I though you were suspended from school for pillaging during gym class, why are you here?" I asked.

"We got bored Malady, so we came here. Your tea is simply divine, it was made from the tears of Odin, right?" She replied, and had me pour her another cup.

"No, it's made from tea leaves." I had to tell her, "Well, I enjoy your company Satsuki-san, along with the rest of the zealots, but you're scaring my friends."

Satsuki laughed and looked over at the rest of the Light Music Club, who were positioned behind a makeshift prison of desks, all looking quite terrified. Three zealots were guarding them, each armed with a loaf of french bread purchased from the school cafeteria, "We can't let them free until we know that they're not Irish assassins."

"They're not assassins, they're musicians!" I cried, "Let them go!"

"Alas, our queen has been fooled by their witchery." Satsuki sighed, "Minions, behead the witch!"

"Don't behead me!" Mio squeaked and curled up into a ball.

"What's wrong with you people! You can't just go around deciding to devote your life to someone, then start attacking people and pillaging. You should be very ashamed of yourselves." I scolded at the meany warrior zealots.

Satsuki's voice returned to normal, "I dunno Mugi-chan, we've been up all night playing Dungeons and Dragon while drinking coffee and listening to _Amon Amarth _and _Dragonforce_." Her voice took that evil tone again, "Zealots, raise your teacups, we drink once more to our mistress before leaving...because campus security will call our parents." They raised their drinks and Satsuki gave a toast, "To the almighty one, holy bearer of tea. Empower us, flow through our veins and carry us into war. To the unwavering devoted to the dark, We drink this tea of majesty to you. Now lets go home and get some sleep."

And with that, they left like nothing had happened. I helped my friends rearrange the desks to where they had been. Mio picked up a loaf a french bread they had left, "Weren't those the girls from that crazy dodge ball game yesterday?"

"No they-" _Wait, NO Mugi NO. No more lies, you do know these people, and you have to face up to it_, "-Wait, they were there. They elected me as their leader and are now going around causing trouble. I don't know what to do!"

Mio stroked her chin, surely about to slap me across the face for this. I braced for slapping, "That certainly is a problem, perhaps we should talk to the student council about them."

"I didn't even consider that." I said in amazement. Mio-chan wasn't beating me, she was helping me.

"Class doesn't start for a few more minutes, lets go right now." Mio suggested.

I nodded my head, "Come on Yui-chan, and Ricchan."

They were sitting on their knees were the desk prison had been. Ritsu looked up at me with big circles under her eyes, at least she was on speaking terms again, "I can't man, I've been on the inside for too long, man. You can't just go back out there after being locked up for so long, it just doesn't work that way, man! Ain't that right Yui-chan?"

"I...I miss the zealots, I wasn't a prisoner. They loved me, they weren't keeping me prisoner." Yui said in a low voice, apparently the victim of Stockholm Syndrome.

"Well Mio-chan, it's just you and me." I said, and we went to find Nodoka.

**FAST FORWARD**

"A platoon of warrior zealots that were responsible for yesterday's dodge ball disaster?" Nodoka confirmed, and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. Now there weren't many things in life that bothered me, but that was one of them. I absolutely _hated _it when she did that,_ Okay, either buy smaller glasses or get a bigger nose; because this isn't working for you_.

"Yes, that's the problem." I told her.

Nodoka sighed, and did that glasses thing again, _STOP IT! _"We've had problems with them before."

"You have?" Mio and I gasped in unison.

"Yes, they're the _Viking Metal Club_." She replied.

"There's another music club besides us?" I asked.

"Yes and no..." Nodoka paused, and looked like she was trying to find a way to put it, "They're technically a music club, but they refuse to play music on anything other than custom made guitars made from the wood of historical viking ships; so they've never played anything. Their club activities consist of listening to metal, drinking black coffee, reading bad fanfiction, and playing Dungeons and Dragons. We've had problems with them trying to 'conquer' other clubs. There was a large problem with them in the 'Irish Culture Appreciation Club' where they engaged into psuedowarfare for months. It finally ended when the Viking Metal Club finally stole everything there was to steal from the Irish and moved on."

"That's actually the coolest thing I have ever heard about this school. I didn't realize how clubs worked." I said with wide eyes, then I remembered the chaos they had caused, "But how do we get rid of them?"

"Here, I'll write them a citation which will prevent them for engaging in club activities." Nodoka smiled and told us. She pushed her glasses up _again_, then chuckled, "If you think that's crazy, you should have seen the feud between the Black Metal Club and the Christian Heavy Metal Club. Both are full of extremely talented musicians, but both refuse to play as long as the other exists."

"Black Metal Club, are they like us?" I asked.

"Well, their club leader is over there, ask her." Nodoka replied and pointed a freshmen girl wearing thick layers of eyeliner, and had the Latin words _Non Serviam* _written on her forehead.

I waved at her, "Good morning, Black Metal Club!"

"_Hails and horns, Keinbu!**_" She said English with a heavy, thick Greek accent.

"Look Mio-chan, I'm meeting people." I told our bassist.

The bell rang, signaling for class to start. Luckily, my five minutes of fame had almost passed. People had found other things to talk about, or at least some of them. The remaining sect was broken into two, my admirers, and the people who avoided me like the plague...or for the plague I essentially had. Life hadn't had broken into its normal routine yet, and I was getting kind of sick of the attention. Random people struck conversation and asked about things I couldn't answer. I couldn't say how I was dealing with the loss of my sister, or how I felt about everyone's contribution to my foundation; the one I didn't start, mind you. They kept asking me this like they expected a different answer. It got worse when I had people offering to do my classwork.

At lunch I had to hide under the table in the Light Music Club room to avoid people; people being insane viking warrior zealots. Azusa peered under the table, because it was her legs I was leaning against, "Tsumugi-senpai, come out from under there."

"No, I feel warm and safe under here." I pouted.

Azusa clicked her spoon against her tea cup, "Okay everyone, it's time we ended all this craziness once and for all."

"What craziness?" Yui asked, "Mugi-neesan, what craziness does she mean?"

"Right, you three are all under her guile." Azusa sighed, "Fine, this can wait until later when it's just us. But Tsumugi-senpai, this _has to end_."

"You're right." I put my head on her knees and whispered.

"Thank you for seeing reason. Now get your head out from between my legs, last thing this club needs is more ammunition for innuendo." Azusa replied, then pushed my head away.

"Fine, I'll go find someone else legs to hang around." I said, then rested my chin on Ritsu's legs.

"Why is Mugi-chan down there again?" Ricchan asked.

"Long, _long_ story." I replied, then the door opened and I saw a pair of stockings walk across the room.

"Good afternoon, is there something we can help you with?" Mio asked the mystery woman.

In a slow, deliberate voice, she replied, "Yes, I am looking for Kotobuki-san."

"Here I am!" I popped out in front of Ricchan, much to the drummers surprise. It was Ms. Non Serviam from earlier. What could she want with me? "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes Kotobuki-san. I wanted to thank you." She bowed, I was having trouble understanding her due to her Greek heritage, "I apologize, my Japanese is not so good, it is my second language."

"You wanted to thank me?" I asked.

"Yes, now that you have ended the forays of the Viking Metal Club, our own club can seize that vacuum of power and destroy the filthy Christian Heavy Metal Club once and for all." The malice in her eyes scared me more than her risque words, "If you need a favor, just ask. Just come by and ask for Apsycha Kataktitis***, that's me."

"R-right." I said as she walked out. From under me, Ricchan grumbled, "Man, things just keep getting weirder and weirder. Now you're allies with the Black Metal Club, _and _the Viking Metal Club, but they don't like each other."  
"I don't like the Black Metal Club..." Mio whispered, "Their clubroom is the basement of the school and they play scary music while drawing upside down pentacles on themselves with goats blood." The memories sent Mio into shock, and she covered her ears and tried to get rid of the image of girls in black playing _Behemoth _covers while drenched in animal blood. All in all, that actually would be a pretty scary sight.

"Are we the only normal club in this school?" Ricchan asked from under me, "One club is full of live action role players and the other is full of Satanists."

"We go on vacations and eat snacks all day." Azusa noted.

"Makes you wonder what the Jazz Club is hiding, huh?" Ricchan wondered, still under me.

"We should find out!" Yui suggested, and threw her fist into her palm.

"Get more allies!" Ricchan shouted.

"_Woo!_" Yui cheered.

Azusa didn't look as enthusiastic, "Friends are not allies, they're friends. And why do you want allies, this isn't a war!"

"Because more allies means more power." Ricchan replied, "Look at a club like the Volleyball Club, they're pretty much the biggest club because they're really close to all the other sports ones. Then look at us, no allies to boot. Even the Black Metal Club has the Latin Chorus Club on their side."

"Just how many clubs are there?" Yui wondered.

"I dunno," Ricchan shrugged, "They start getting pretty obscure. If I remember right, there's even a Kim Jong Il Appreciation Club, but I think they got disbanded after one of their members went to Disney World.****"

"I think there should be a limit on just how many clubs there are, and where are they finding advisers for all of them?" Azusa asked.

"Well a lot of the clubs are extremely low maintenance, so some teachers probably advise three or four. I wonder who advises the Viking Metal Club, because they're not doing a good job." Ricchan replied, "Oh one more thing, _get off me!_"

"Oh right, my bad." I quickly apologized then slipped under the table again.

"Hm, do you think it would be worth trying to make friends with Plastic Music Club?" Ricchan asked now that her lap was thoroughly Mugi free.

"What do they do?" Yui asked.

"Play _Guitar Hero_."

"There's a club for that?"

Ricchan sighed, "There's a club for _anything _involving music. Except techno, because that got disbanded after they used the kitchen to house a rave. Stupid bass monkeys."

"Enough about clubs already!" Azusa snapped, then grumbled something under her breath, "Okay, just because Tsumugi-senpai won't say it, _I will_."

"Say what?" I squeaked from under the table, and looked up at her with my best puppy eyes.

"Don't look at me like that, you have to tell the truth!" She whispered down at me. So I stuck out my lower lip for added effect, "Oh come on, we already went through this, you can't just hide everything!"

"Yes I can!" I whispered back at her.

"What're you two talking about?" Yui said from next to me.

"Go away this is my spot!" I whispered at her too.

"Aww but it's so cozy down here." Yui pouted, "Isn't that right Mio-chan?"

Sure enough she was down here too, but was still cowering over the self-inflicted goat blood thing, so she couldn't answer. I looked back up at Azusa, "We'll talk about it later. I promise."

"Good." She nodded, then moved because everyone could see up her skirt. It wasn't until a break between classes that I was able to catch her alone, we were in the bathroom on the first floor, so no one would think to bother us.

"Alright Tsumugi-senpai, I don't know why you did all of this, but I'm going to help you fix it so everything will go back to normal." Azusa told me, as she leaned against one of the sinks.

"How can we do that, I already caused so much trouble." I mournfully replied. Honestly, I had little hope that things would go back to normal. But this had to have been the sixth time she had said that, so maybe she was onto something.

"Now it kills me to say this, but we need a scapegoat." Azusa said without making eye contact, "However, it doesn't have to be a real person. We can pin this all on fake person, so no one gets hurt."

"Fake person, who?" I asked.

"Mugitsu." Azusa smiled.

"But she was eaten by a polar bear." I reminded her.

The twin-tailed guitarist shook her head, "No, she was never real to begin with, so she never died. What we do is make it look like Mugitsu was the one who did all of this. Remember when you took a day off to pretend you were sick?"

"Yeah." I nodded.

"Well, we'll tell them that you're still sick, and that you never came to school for any of this." Azusa smiled again.

"But I was here the whole time." I reminded her, "Lies don't work if they know you were there."

She shook her head again, "We'll tell them that Mugitsu was here in your stead, because you didn't want to miss school. So you had Mugitsu come and pose as you, but Mugitsu worked like an evil twin sister and slandered you; doing things that Tsumugi wouldn't have done."

"That's...actually a pretty good idea." I said in amazement, pinning everything on a sister who can just leave to Finland and avoid prosecution was genius, "Then Mugitsu can just go back to Finland and be forgotten about!"

"Exactly." Azusa smiled, "My plan is to have Mugitsu explain everything in a really haughty way, but it has to be a way that everyone can hear it...and you'll have to be a Thespian Extraordinaire to pull this off."

"Why don't we borrow the intercom for a bit?" I suggested.

"We'll have to sneak in to do it, and they'll probably come and try to stop us if we try use it without permission, or for good reason." Azusa replied, "Not to mention you'd have to be really convincing to make it work, but all in all, I think it's worth a try. I was thinking we can do it during lunch tomorrow when all the staff are out eating, or getting food. It's a small window of opportunity."

"Tomorrow then..." I agreed.

**THE DAY OF RECKONING**

Well, the suspension of the Viking Metal Club warrior zealots didn't last long, since they were back the next day. At least they weren't given much of an opportunity to harass me, _yet_. Which was good and bad, because that french bread they had left was actually really good. For the first part of the day, things were almost normal, except for getting another 20k yen for the Kotobuki Sisters AIDs Relief Foundation. That was a good reminder of why I needed to do this, because I was essentially stealing peoples money with a lie. Well, my lie was making Yui and Ricchan steal money, which went to me. So I was like the guild leader of some evil thieves guild.

When lunch started, I found Azusa as quickly as I could. As we quickly walked to the vacant staff room she handed me a piece of paper, "Here, I prepared this speech for you. The internet helped me do it, and you know how good they are at antagonizing people."

"Right." I nodded and quickly read over it. I was rather mean, but it would definitely lay some hate on Mugitsu, and it made me look better. Azusa had gone far and beyond what was required of her this day. The speech explained Mugitsu's motives, and went on about how under appreciated her sister was. It was like what I had wanted people to see in the first place, but went about the complete wrong way. At least this time no one would mourn Mugitsu's passing.

The staff room was vacant for a moment, except for one person standing around, "Kataktitis-san, what are you doing here?"

"I am here to return a request form to use the school's steam tunnels." She replied, then placed a piece of paper into a bin. I wasn't even going to ask...She walked out and Azusa and I were free to use the school intercom. Nervousness overtook me, and I almost didn't do it, but Azusa's encouraging glare pressed me on.

I hid halfway under a desk in case anyone came in, and if they did, it would be the end of me. I held down the button and spoke into it, "H-hello?" I said in my deepest voice, Mugitsu's voice, "*Ahem*, before I return to my native country, I want everyone in this school to know that you have all been tricked and fooled. Kotobuki Tsumugi has been home for the last five days; and I, Kotobuki Mugitsu, took her place. No, I was not dead, I just made that up and wore a blonde wig so all of you would believe me."

Now it was time for the hard part, "But before you go, I want to leave you with this... My name is Mugitsu and I hate every single one of you. All of you are unappreciative, ungrateful, no-lives, who spend every second of their school day taking advantage of Tsumugi. You are everything bad in the school. Honestly, have any of you ever said thanks? I mean I guess it's fun drinking Tsumugi's tea because you can't make your own, but all of you take it to a new level. This is worse than ordering the most elaborate coffee at Starbucks and not saying thanks for it."

I paused, and waited to see if anyone was kicking in the door. They weren't so I continued, "Don't be a stranger. Just hit me with your best shot. I'm pretty much perfect. I learned all of the Light Music Club's songs on keyboard, and even some of the Jazz Club's. What songs do you know, other than "Hot Cross Buns"? I also get straight A's, and have a epically awesome twin sister (she just made me tea, it was SO good). You are all rude and should think about what you've done, thanks for listening."

"Okay, now let's get out of here!" Azusa quickly said when the intercom was turned off. She pointed at the side door that would lead us out in a more obscure way. It was good that I said that Mugitsu was wearing a wig, because I would have been in danger.

Someone burst through that door though, it was Kataktitis, "Where is Mugitsu-san right now?"

"Uh, she left, I came here to stop her, but I missed her I guess." I lied, that would be my _last_ one.

"The Viking Metal Club is enraged that she impersonated their queen and are are out for blood." Kataktitis panted, it looked like she had just come back from running from something. Then I had an idea.

"Wait, Kataktitis-chan, I have a favor you could do for me!" I said, then grabbed a marker off of the table near me.

"Anything." She bowed, making the _Non Servium _thing just slightly ironic. Black hair, my height, hair my length... I wrote _Mugitsu _on her forehead below the previous Latin word, then smiled, "What did you write?"

"Nothing." I kept smiling, feeling particularly evil. That was when Satsuki ran in through the other door.

"There's Mugitsu!" She pointed at Kataktitis.

"I am not Mugitsu!" The Greek exchange student waved her arms.

"Don't lie, I could recognize that Finnish accent anywhere!" Satsuki retorted.

"It's Greek, I'm Greek!" Kataktitis tried to tell her, then her eyes narrowed, "If it is a fight you want, then it's a fight you shall receive."

"Let this be our final battle..." Satsuki said in a rather epic way, "Let us find guitars, this is battle that can only be fought with metal."

"Whatever, _poser_." Kataktitis scoffed.

"_What_?_"_

"You are a poser, you're not even from Scandinavia. At least I come from a country with strong black metal scene." The two metal club members stared each other down, giving Azusa and I a chance to escape.

"You're evil, Tsumugi-senpai." Azusa chuckled as we walked past the rest of the warrior zealots going to the staff room. I felt bad that Sawako would have to deal with that when she returned.

We returned to the Light Music Club room to find the other three drinking tea that _wasn't _made by me. They had actually taken the time to make tea and bring out snacks themselves, it was like some bizarre miracle. My mind couldn't process it, "I-Is something wrong?"

"Is she the real Mugi!" Yui gasped in horror, "Not the one who fooled my addled little brain into thinking we were related?"

"It's the real me. Good news, my evil twin was beset upon by the Viking Metal Club and will returning to Finland within the week where she'll never bother anyone again!" I happily exclaimed.

"I don't think it's her." Ricchan noted, then scratched her chin, "Let's pull her wig off and expose her!"

"No, it's really her!" Azusa tried to defend me.

"I don't think that's Azu-nyan either!" Yui jumped up and proclaimed.

"Now you're being ridiculous." Azusa scolded.

"Pull both their wigs off!" Ritsu screamed at us, then leaped up with Yui. Mio was still under the desk cowering.

"What do we do!" I asked Azusa, she was the brains of the Azu-Mugi Project here, not me.

Azusa lightly pulled her hair, "Look, not a wig, not a wig!"

I had already thrown someone to the wolves, and I wasn't about to do it again, so I stepped in front of Azusa, "You can take me, but you will spare her."

"We weren't going to hurt her, yo. We're just gonna take of your wigs." Ricchan told me, _Ha, she said "yo"_. She lightly tugged at my hair, then Azusa's, "Yep, they're real."

Yui ran over and tackle-hugged me, rubbing our faces together. This time she was hugging me for me, not for something I lied about, "Mugi-chan, it's the real you! I don't care if we're not cousins, and that Mugitsu and I had a lot of fun together, you're still better than she could have ever been."

"Thank you, I think I'm going to die of happiness overdose now." I managed to say throughout her hugs.

Ritsu stepped up to me, "Er, as much as it pains me to say this, Mugitsu had a point. We don't appreciate you Mugi, and we all love you. It's just, you have this strange untouchable aura around you. I guess we should say thanks more often...Anyways, glad to see you're feeling better. You wouldn't believe the week we've had."

"I hear that." I said under my breath. I slipped away from Yui, then stood proud. "*Ahem*, Everyone, I have something I want to say to everyone here. I hope you can hear me Mio, because you're still cowering, and quite frankly it's getting kind of annoying now. ANYWAYS, I learned something this week that everyone should hear. I learned that it doesn't matter if you tell a plethora of lies, drastically change your personality, and take advantage of peoples good nature...Because Azusa will be there to bail you out."

"_What!_" Azusa screamed from behind me.

"I don't know about that, but we're just glad to have the real you back." Ricchan shrugged, "Now go make us some tea and snacks."

"With pleasure." I smiled, "With pleasure, except class is about to start."

As we were walking back to class, we passed two girls engaged in a guitar duel with unplugged guitar. The muted plucking of strings could barely be heard as they stood bowlegged and headbanged to their inaudible playing. I smiled with knowing eyes and pressed onto class; ending the final chapter in the life Mugitsu.

After school tea time was after school tea time again. I was still grounded, but such a day could not be spent at home being punished, it needed to be spent with friends who loved me. It was a very good thing that they didn't see through the _numerous _holes in the Mugitsu story; a very good thing. Mio returned back to normal and was playing her bass with renewed vigor. It was inspiring or something... After that we went to catch a movie, but nothing good was playing so I returned to the clubroom to pick up a few things that I had left behind.

It was strange though, I heard this strange sound...Like Pickles the Cat grooming himself, and the air had this weird smell I couldn't place. My guess was that Pickles the Cat had followed me and made some exotic food I had never tried before. Turns out I was half right... What happened then? Well, that's a story for some other time.

**THE END**

Here's a standard afterword from the author. I realize how unbelievable the events of this chapter got, but I have my reasons. First off, I was horrendously displeased with my progress up through chapter three. So I revamped my style a little bit, just to make it more interesting to write for myself. I hope no one was too put off by the shenanigans of the various clubs. Normally, I would list off all the references that I made, but there really are too many too name in this chapter. That speech "Mugitsu" made was just a revamped version of the stalest copypasta on the internet, for those who thought it was out of place. And I believe _Reluctance _is the only story of mine that I did not give some form of mention in this.

* Totally not the lyrics for _Black Valor_ changed around a bit.

**_Non Servium _is Latin for "I will not serve", which is pretty much what Lucifer said when he gave the finger to God.

*** Standard greeting for black metal bands of the Satanic nature.

**** Translates into "Lifeless Conqueror".

***** Because I know very few people will understand this- Kim Jong Il denied one of this sons the chance at the throne for sneaking into Japan to go to Disney World. I wish I were kidding.


End file.
